GNU bug report logs - #62572
cp --no-clobber behavior has changed

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Message #89 received at 62572 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Michael Stone <mstone <at> debian.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
Cc: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>,
 Pádraig Brady <P <at> draigbrady.com>, 62572 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 1058752 <at> bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: bug#62572: cp --no-clobber behavior has changed
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2023 09:49:08 -0500

On Sun, Dec 17, 2023 at 12:34:11AM -0800, Paul Eggert wrote:
>On 2023-12-16 13:46, Bernhard Voelker wrote:
>>Whether the implementation is race-prone or not is an internal thing.
>
>I wasn't referring to the internal implementation. I was referring to 
>cp users. With the newer Coreutils (FreeBSD) behavior, you can 
>reliably write a script to do something if cp -n didn't copy the file 
>because the destination already existed. With the older Coreutils 
>behavior you cannot do that reliably; there will always be a race 
>condition.

You can now reliably write a script using the new long option. Changing 
the behavior of the short option helped nobody.

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